Front Garden Looking Better

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This is really a follow on from a previous blog that I wrote during the heavy frosts we all suffered in the UK this year. It was about the devastation and destruction the frost had impacted on my front garden, well…………………….
Plants never cease to amaze me, they lie dormant in he cold earth year after year only to provide a gorgeous display of foliage and flower thereafter.
I started the front garden project last year in August so I had the opportunity to plant a large amount of Spring bulbs in the Autumn.

This was a treat for my Birthday, 5 Trillium Kurabayashii, this is the first one to flower with a deep purple-red,

There are mostly Narcissi flowering at present interplanted around Coprosma Kiwi Red and Pink Splendour, but there are tulips and Alliums also growing well.


The front of the large bed was looking a bit dull a few months ago, so when the primroses became available I planted them along the front of the border. They aren’t usually ‘my thing’ but they were the only colourful plants around at the time.

This bed gets very little sun during the day, it only gets a brief glimmer at the end of the day so I had to find shade loving plants. There is all sorts planted in here, Euonymous, Tradescantia, Azaeleas and a Rhododendron, ajuga, hellebore, Ferns and there are some Astilbes popping their heads up here.

The Coprosma hedge didn’t fair too well I’m sad to say as the frost put pay to most of the yearling shrubs and the remaining ones have turned pretty leggy. I have about 10 of them now potted up waiting to be planted somewhere. The Botanical Gardens in Ventnor have offered to take some of them off my hands as they have a few gaps in their New Zealand Garden and as Prince Charles has requested to see that when he visits in July, they need some plants!
I did replace it with Pieris ‘Little Heath’ which will form a small hedge of just over 2 foot tall and wide. I have also planted 3 Berberis Red tower at equal intervals along it to provide height but not spread.

This is an image of the whole garden of the North facing side

These 2 plants get no complaints from me at all, they flowered all Winter and are continuing to do so. The one with the orange flowers is Grevillia Rosmariflorus and the yellow one is a relative of Gorse which will one day climb up the fence and give good coverage – Coronilla valentina subs. glauca ‘Citrina’.

All in all, I pretty proud of my achievement so far and will continue to plant and prune and probably replace as some things just didn’t make it. The Callistemons look pretty dead, but I’ve given them a good prune and I’ll wait until this season is over until I dig them up, they can sometimes surprise you

Some more pictures

• 5 Apr, 2009
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